You've almost had to be living in a cave for the last few years to avoid the pervasive nature of social networks. Facebook alone has grown by leaps and bounds, to the point where most word-processing programs will recognize "Facebook" as a word. Social networks are a way to catch up with people you know, and to meet new people with whom you share interests. Many business are jumping on the social networking bandwagon, and with the tips in this article, you will succeed at integrating social media on your website, too.

The most important step is to combine all your accounts. All major social networking sites are compatible with most others. For instance, Facebook has a variety of Twitter apps that automatically post new content to Twitter, and vice versa. Information can easily be shared between sites via the use of widgets, being posted as a link in different places and attracting people back to your website. Facebook lets you use your account as a login name for other sites, which will then share updates automatically. There are also many mobile apps with the same functionality.

Now, for more about widgets. A widget is a segment of HTML code that can be placed on a website, which instructs the page to display a certain badge or tool. Social media widgets are usually in the form of icons listing the sites you have a presence on. When a page visitor clicks one of these icons, they go to your Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook page. Other widgets are self-updating, displaying your current status on various sites and making it easier to keep everyone in the loop. To use a widget, update your social media page, and the widget will display the information wherever it's installed. Widgets will help attract more visitors to your site- most Web users frequent a social news site such as del.icio.us, Digg, or Reddit. On these sites, users submit interesting content from all parts of the Web, and these entries are listed in order of how popular they are. Traffic is directed back to your site, and there's little risk involved in using such a site.

Third-party apps can be used to streamline the process of integrating social media into your website. If you were to update every social site every day, individually, you wouldn't have time to do much else. A good way to save time and effort is to download and set up a third-party app such as Tweetdeck, which uses one login and is used to update all your social network pages at one time. There are other apps available, but all have clean interfaces and easy usability.

No matter which of these tips you use (try all of them for best results), the most important thing to remember is that social networking is a great way to connect with your customers. By integrating social media into your site, you will make it easier to keep in touch with those you're trying to reach.